


Coastline

by acryology



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Close Friendship, Gen, M/M, Realizing Feelings, Romance, School Life, Studying, implied mutual pining, implied pining lance, tags update as more stories are added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 16:24:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8998153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acryology/pseuds/acryology
Summary: def.the land along a coast, especially when seen from the ocean or the airA simple collection of Hunk/Lance-centric drabbles and short stories based off of various prompts and alternate universe ideas.





	1. studying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk, with Lance's help, goes to the library to study for an upcoming test when he's interrupted by something he didn't expect.

The Galaxy Garrison library almost every evening was uncrowded, near-silent, and peaceful enough to be a nice place to study for a test before lights out. The comfortable chairs and actually stable tables were a plus.

It was a surprise to Hunk to see the library like this, considering it was a better place to hang out at than the cramped hallways during breaks. Not that he was complaining about it- this was what he deemed an absolute godsend.

Hunk was proud of the fact he was actually understanding something in history class, for once. The last chapter they'd studied about confused him, which, in result, had him bomb his last test and lowered his grade to a borderline C.

The new unit they were working on was the last one before grades were due, and if Hunk didn't pass the last test with at least an 83%, he could say goodbye to having his first ever B in a history class, _ever_.

Grades started over with a clean slate the next semester, but Hunk was determined to keep a B-average in the class all year. He studied the content over and over and had a good grasp of everything, but he felt it wouldn't hurt to go over it one more time the night before. 

After ranting about his dilemma to his close friend Lance, they came up with the idea to study together- or rather, Lance just quiz him, being that his US History class was a still focusing a century behind Hunk's class, and hope for the best. 

Hunk made it a huge deal to go over to the library straight after eating dinner with his school bag, a homemade set of flash cards, and a slightly crinkled lined paper with study guide questions he jotted down in class to answer on his own.

They were able to come in with two hours to spare before they had to go back to their dorms. It was just enough time for Hunk to study and make sure this test was in the bag.

Immediately sitting down at a table close to the entrance, Hunk started organizing his items as Lance grabbed a chair and sat next to him.

"Alright, dude, how do you want to start this?" Lance turned his chair toward Hunk and adjusted his shirt. "You want me to quiz you with your flash cards first?"

Hunk put his hair up into a ponytail and rolled up his sleeves. "Please. Can you shuffle them for me, too?"

"Yeah, totally." 

"I'm really freaking out about this test, dude." Hunk began to fidget in his chair slightly with a sigh, looking anxious. "I _really_ want to get a good grade on this. You know how much this means to me."

"Don't sweat it, Hunk. I know you're going to do amazing tomorrow." Lance mixed up the cards while encouraging Hunk, separating the deck in halves and pushing them into each other to combine.

"You've been muttering facts to yourself all week, man. Stuff about Teddy Roosevelt, some big stick, canals..."   
   
"You're going to own this. Trust me." Lance put the deck on the table face-up, and drew a card. "You ready?"

Hunk rubbed his hands together, giving Lance a determined look. "Let's do this."

"Awesome." Lance flipped the card around to read it aloud. "Okay, so... the Panama Canal opened when?"

"August 15, 1914."  
   
"And how long did it take for it to be built?"  
   
"About 10 years."  
   
"Nice." Lance put the card down and drew another to read to Hunk. "What did the Treaty of Paris in 1898 state?"  
   
"It said Cuba was to be independent, Guam and Puerto Rico were to become US territory, and..."   
   
Hunk snapped his fingers trying to remember the last part of the answer. "Crap. And I just had this one, too."  
   
"I'll give you a hint. Southeast Asia? 20 million dollars?"  
   
Hunk gasped and gave a huge grin in realization. "The US gets the Philippines from Spain for 20 million!"  
   
"There you go." Lance smiled at Hunk as he put their current card to the side. "See what I mean, dude? You're doing great."   
"Ready for the next card?"  
   
"Lay it on me."  
   
"Okay, cool..." "Woodrow Wilson came up with _Blank_ Diplomacy for the US to go by after Taft's presidency."  
   
"Oh, that one's _easy_." Hunk crossed his arms with confidence and looked straight at Lance. "He developed the concept of _Moral_ Diplomacy."  
   
"Oh, uh..." Lance looked up from the card with a sympathetic look. "Sorry, that's actually wrong, buddy."  
   
Hunk gave a bewildered look, in disbelief he'd gotten it wrong. "What? Wait, how?"  
   
Lance placed the card down and shrugged. "Don't know, dude. I'm just reading off the card for you."  
   
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, there's _no way_ that's wrong." Hunk opened his textbook to check his answer and flipped through the pages. "Teddy had a big stick, Taft had cash, and Wilson had morals. I kept repeating this to myself, like... all week."  
   
Hunk found the page he was looking for, marked with a thin, blue sticky tab and scanned through the text. He pointed at the piece of text proving himself right and leaned in to show Lance.   
   
"See, Wilson created _Moral_ Diplomacy. We went in-depth in this in class a few days back." Hunk looked in the card's direction, then at Lance. "Can you pass me the card? What did I write?"  
   
Lance promptly grabbed the card and handed it to Hunk. "You wrote 'Dollar Diplomacy' as the answer."  
   
"What the heck? I don't even remember doing that..."   
   
Hunk sat there for a second, thinking of how he could've wrote that, and suddenly remembered when he made his mistake and put his face into his hands.  
   
"I think I know how that happened now. Remember when I came to breakfast on Monday?"  

"Oh, yeah, huh..." Lance snickered, recalling the moment Hunk walked in the cafeteria and him thinking he looked like a zombie to himself. 

"I remember having to make sure your head didn't accidentally fall into that oatmeal bowl you were eating. You were pretty much ready to fall asleep into it that morning."

"Yep, and I'm pretty sure I did that somehow anyway because I ended up having to wipe away small pieces of oatmeal from my cheek before we left to morning classes."  
   
"Anyways, the reason I stayed up so late was because I was making these flash cards. I'm guessing I accidentally wrote that as the answer and didn't get to fix it because I was too tired to notice. I hope the other cards aren't like this, too."  
   
"Can I fix this real fast? I have some Wite-Out with me and a few pens. It's gonna bother me if I don't do something."  
   
"Yeah, go ahead. You don't have to ask me, dude."  
   
Hunk grabbed his bag from behind his chair and started digging through it, pulling out his supplies. "Sorry for dragging you here again, by the way. I really appreciate your help with this."  
   
"Don't sweat it, you don't have to apologize!" Lance patted Hunk's back and held him slightly close to him by the shoulder. "Anything for you, man."   
   
Hunk noticed Lance seemed to linger longer than usual as he held him. It felt kind of strange, but as Lance fell back into his seat, letting go of him to let Hunk correct the card, he went back to study mode again.  
   
Hunk brushed over the writing with Wite-Out, careful to not leave chunks of it on the top of the card. Waiting a few seconds, he deemed it dry enough to write on and grabbed his blue pen.  
   
He found himself pushing the book forward and turning away from Lance to make sure he wrote the answer clearly. He read out the definition in chunks as he rewrote it onto the flash card.  
   
"Moral Diplomacy.... was the form of diplomacy... developed by Woodrow Wilson... in the-"  
   
Hunk slowly stopped writing and reading aloud when he felt his tuft of hair in the back move around back and forth against his neck softly.  


With a raise of an eyebrow, Hunk turned his head slightly towards Lance with a straight expression, holding his US History textbook down in place. "Dude... what are you doing?"

"Playing with your hair." Lance let go at the piece of hair he was twirling around and looked up at his friend. "Didn't mean to distract you, sorry." 

"Nah, it's cool, but..." Hunk put his study guide papers in his page to save his spot, closed his book, and turned towards Lance. "I don't have a problem with it, but may I ask why?"

Lance gave a warm smile, completely enamored with Hunk's ponytail. "I don't know, man."

"I swear, it's just hypnotizing. Your hair's, like, super soft. It's really nice." Lance began to reach at his hair again and go through it with his fingers. "How do you even get it like that?"

Hunk smiled and gave a proud look, placing his hands at his sides and lifted his chest up. "I just go through it like any person would do- shampoo, conditioner, rinse, repeat- nothing out of the ordinary."

"No way." Lance looked at Hunk with a look of disbelief and scoffed. "There's gotta be some special product or treatment you use for it."

"Nope, _au naturel_. Maybe I'm born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline. Y'know, like how they say in those commercials?"

"Hunk, that's a makeup brand."

"Well, you know what I mean, dude."

"Yeah, yeah." Lance chuckled, then found himself shying away and gently letting go of the threads of hair he held. "But seriously though, your hair's nice. You just look really nice today, Hunk, with a ponytail and everything."  
   


Hunk could've sworn he saw Lance's face turn a slight shade of red as he said that, but mentally shrugged it off, telling himself he was probably imagining it. Probably.

Hunk smiled with a light blush, and put his hand behind his neck, giving a bashful pose. "Thanks, dude."   
   
"Yeah, of course." Lance's eyes averted to the blue pen on the side and remembered where they left off. "...Uh, did you finish correcting that card?"   
   
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Hunk finished the sentence he was writing and handed the card over carefully, making sure not to touch where the Wite-Out and ink were. "I think it's still kinda drying in some parts, just so you know."   
   
"I'll try not to smudge it." Lance cleared his throat and held the card by a dry part of it and held it up to read again. "Before I put this card away, let me ask you it again to make sure you got it down for real."  
   
"Totally." Hunk clenched his hand into a fist and smiled confidently. "Okay, _now_ , I'm ready for this."  
   


* * *

  
   
That night before going to sleep, Hunk gave himself a quick chapter  
review, reminding himself of what needed to be gone over as he dressed in his pajamas and untied his ponytail.  
   
As he thought back to Panamanian Independence and Teddy Roosevelt's naval fleet, he couldn't help to replay the moment Lance started messing with his hair in the process.  
   
He looked so _enthralled_ with his locks, like as if he couldn't resist playing with it for at least a quick second.  
   
Hunk was one to hug and high-five people with no issue, but when it came to his hair or headband, he wasn't the biggest fan of people touching it. Only his family had the right to do that- well, until now, anyways.  


When it came to the thought of Lance ruffling his hair, twirling pieces around and around, he couldn't find himself being bothered by it.

Hunk admits to himself he wouldn't mind him doing that again. Or anything else like that. More hugs would be nice. Maybe more than that even. Lance is definitely close enough for that, closer than anyone else he knew at the Garrison.

It took him a few seconds to realize what he just said- or _thought_ , technically- and his eyes widened.

Hunk did _not_ just admit he wouldn't mind his best friend playing with his hair again. And that he'd hug him more. And even more than that. Did he _seriously_ just think that? Him? Lance? Like _that_? 

Not that it was a bad thing. Hunk wasn't insecure in the fact he wanted to more affectionate with or be with a guy- that wasn't why he was freaking out in the middle of his dorm room at ten-eleven something in the evening.

It was the fact it was _Lance_ that was making him think.

He wasn't sure if Lance would even _like_ that, being more touchy-feely. It wasn't like they were even dating, they were just friends. Would Lance even want to date someone right now- scratch that, he knows he's interested for sure.

The real question was if Lance would want to date _him_.

Hunk proceeded to think back to earlier as he sat on the bed. Lance seemed _different_ than usual that evening. 

He's complimented Hunk before, gave him joke punches in the shoulder, hugged him, but during then, it felt normal and just _whatever_. No biggie.

However, in the library, Lance gave off a gentle mood. The shoulder touch, Lance playing with his hair, Lance's compliments-

Oh, _god_ , Lance's compliments. When he said he looked good with a ponytail, Hunk remembered seeing him blush- or was that really a blush? Was he looking too much into things?

With everything that happened in the library and how Lance just _was_ , could it be possible that Lance _liked_ him? 

Hunk's heart began to beat heavier with him asking this to himself, prompting him to try to clear his thoughts and tell himself to get to bed. He couldn't afford a sleepless night, especially not before the test the next day. He could figure this out when he _didn't_ have a grade on the line.  
   
After he got up to turn off the lights and crawled into the covers, he looked up to the ceiling and thought just a bit more to himself as he drifted to sleep.   
   
He realized that within a few months, he'll probably forget about the War Industries Board and what they tried to keep a track of during World War 1, and that this information will probably _never_ go through his mind again after graduation.  
   
Yet, he knew he'd probably wouldn't forget what Lance did that evening so easily. Not a chance.  
   
Yeah, _that_ wasn't gonna leave his memory anytime soon.  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiya! this was originally posted 11/6/16, but i decided to edit it and reupload! i needed to sort of... refresh it, i suppose!
> 
> anyways, do they even teach history courses at the garrison? i'm pretty sure they do, right?
> 
> i'm kind of basing what hunk was studying about in this drabble off of the courses high school juniors in my state/district are supposed to take- i'm around their stated age of 16-17, so i'd thought i'd pull from what i was learning in school and incorporate it in the drabble to make it seem more real and down-to-earth. (no pun intended, i promise.)
> 
> let me know how you feel about this one! thanks so much for reading the opening drabble to "enhanced"!


	2. thank god

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After retrieving the Yellow Lion, Lance _really_ needs a moment to process what nearly happened and that everything's okay now.

As soon as he could latch onto Hunk after they landed in the hangar and got off their lions, Lance couldn't find himself to let go.

The mission to get the Yellow Lion was successful, but by _barely_. 

He watched what he thought was Hunk dying in front of him in horror. He _swore_ his heart never sunk so low before in his life.

Hunk meant the world to him. They'd already been through so much together in just a few years and he couldn't imagine going on without him.

Lance will never forget the nights they stayed over in each other's dorms even if it was against the rules, the lunch periods where they chatted amongst themselves and trying to figure out what was in Tuesday's macaroni delight, the weekends they spent crash studying for a math quiz or history test or doing a last minute science project, the midnight hours sneaking to Hunk's room to comfort him or _be_ comforted...

They'll always linger in his memory and warm his heart, with or without him. But he was thanking his lucky stars Hunk was still _here_ , alive and well. 

He realized he'd been hugging for too long when Hunk snapped him out of his thoughts with a worried voice. "Hey, uh... you okay, Lance?"

Lance nodded into his chest, tears pouring, wetting Hunk's shirt in the process. "Yeah, yeah, I just..."

"I'm so glad you're okay. I really am, dude." He backed out of the embrace some to look at Hunk as he spoke. "You just _really_ scared me out there."

Hunk realized now he was crying and held him closer again, rubbing his shoulder to comfort him, giving him an apologetic look. "Look, I'm sorry about what happened. I didnt mean to do that to you, man."

"No, don't say sorry, Hunk..." Lance shook his head into the hug. "It was my fault. I know we were in a rush and being attacked, but I could've been more careful. Hey, _I_ should be saying sorry, if anything."

Lance felt himself grasp Hunk even tighter and further buried his head into his shoulder, voice and sobs muffled. "I know I keep saying this, but I'm just glad you're okay. I thought you died for real, dude."

Lance smiled through his tears, voice breaking once more.

"I don't know where I'd even be without you, Hunk. Thank _god_ , you're alright."


End file.
